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Karim Baratov boasted online and to neighbours that he’d earned a cool $20 million selling his internet company a few years ago.

He bragged that he bought his $1 million, executive-style home in Ancaster with cash along with his grey Aston Martin and black Mercedes.

The Internet jackpot story may have been a lie as U.S. court documents alleged Baratov was paid handsomely for his criminal hacking in an enormous conspiracy with three others. The four men have been charged in a series of devastating cyber attacks executed against Yahoo starting in 2014.

One of Baratov’s co-accused, Alexsey Belan, was listed on the FBI’s most wanted hackers’ list since 2012.

Belan, who lives in Russia, was brought to the attention of Russian law enforcement back then. Instead of arresting him, the Russian federal law enforcement agency “used him” and gave him information to avoid detection, the U.S. documents stated.

Belan allegedly provided his two Russian co-conspirators with unauthourized access to Yahoo’s network.

He also allegedly “leveraged his access to Yahoo’s networks” to score profits by manipulating Yahoo search results for erectile dysfunction drugs and hacking into Yahoo email users accounts to get credit card and gift card account numbers.

Belan allegedly invaded the accounts of more than 30 million Yahoo users, the documents claims.

The documents also allege Baratov was frequently paid a bounty by another conspirator for accessing target Google accounts.

Baratov is now in custody and the U.S. wants to seize his luxury vehicles as proceeds of crime, according to the documents.

None of the allegations against Baratov have been proven in court.

The 22-year-old will be back in Hamilton court Friday. He’s facing extradition to the U.S. and a 20-year prison term, if convicted.

One of Baratov’s lawyers said Thursday that the charges against his client may be “politically motivated by the U.S.”

Jag Virk suggested Baratov is being used as a scapegoat by American authorities.

“I believe (U.S. President) Donald Trump is using this to make it appear as if he is going after Russian hackers,” he said. “These allegations are from three years ago.”

Baratov maintains his innocence and has no prior convictions, said Virk.

Baratov “lived alone, but his parents came once a week to take out the garbage and maintain the home,” said neighbour Kerry Carter.

He first roused the ire of neighbours on Halloween 2015 when his large, loud party woke up a woman and her children living next-door, Carter claims.

“She just asked him to turn the volume down and he said he couldn’t as he’d hired a DJ,” recalled Carter.

Baratov’s parties, held two or three times a year, brought a parade of high-end vehicles, including Lamborghinis, Mercedes and luxury SUVs, said Carter.